Smart Cities
Technological improvements affect virtually every aspect of life, including the cities. With the latest implications of technology, it is possible to see some alterations in cities. This text is going to be about smart cities and technologies, examples of them from the real life and data collecting issue.
What is a Smart City?
Smart cities are the places where advanced technologies are utilized for the benefit of society, contributing to the sustainability and finding solutions to the environmental problems (Albaş, 2023). They can be used for saving energy, decreasing the pollution in cities and facilitating the citizen’s lives.
Smart Technologies
Smart technologies are the technologies integrated into smart cities for several purposes such as leading to a more convenient life for community. As an example of integrating technologies to the cities, Green (2019) states that LinkNYC project is realized so as to provide the citizens of New York with free internet connection. Another example is QR codes that are put in buses by government in Ankara. By using these QR codes, passengers can rate the driver and also state their ideas about other issues, such as cleanness of the city parks, through surveys.
Real Life Examples
According to CNBC (2017), Barcelona uses the smart street lights which turn itself on when there is a movement; in addition, there are parking sensors in the city that show the drivers which parking area is empty and which is being utilized by other cars.
What is more, Singapore uses 3D modelling technology to create a digital twin of the country, which is used for several purposes such as analyzing the crowds and predicting how an infectious disease among public.
Difference Between Space and Place
Spaces are areas that have no social connection with people. Places, on the other hand, can provide individuals with experiences; thus, people might become socially connected to the places. By using technologies, spaces can be transformed to the places. For example, Ankara has been changing its bus stations with modern ones, by adding Wi-Fi, charging unit and heating to the bus stations, they can be converted from spaces to places.
Collecting Data
Although smart cities include some benefits for their citizens, they can pose some threats too. Green (2019) emphasizes that smart cities may be utilized to control the citizens more and increase the observation of them. Also, companies might want to soar their profit by using the data collected from the citizens. For example, an individual who walks in the park regularly might be exposed to sport shoe advertisements due to the data collected from the cameras. According to Green (2019), collecting data by using smart technologies is a paramount factor as it may interfere with the fundamental rights
Government’s Role
Green (2019) suggests that governments have a significant role on whether allowing the companies to collect data about the public or not. They should compare the benefit of using the technologies of companies and the price of it.
From my point of view, issues about smart cities are going to be discussed more in the future as the technology is continuing to grow and undesirable cases might occur if the smart technologies are misused.
References:
Albaş, Ö. (2023). The Forefront Achieving Academic Success 1. Pelikan Publishing.
CNBC. (2017, February 9). What is a smart city? | CNBC Explains — Uptin Saiidi [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/bANfnYDTzxE?feature=shared
Green, B. (2019). The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11555.001.0001
